Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What have we got here in this so-called urgency motion? This urgency motion shows us what the opposition have decided will be their agenda going forward, and that is scare campaigns. That is what this is all about. They haven't got any policy, they haven't done any work and they haven't learnt from the election result, so what they've done is wrap up a few scare campaigns. I can assure anyone that may be listening that this will be the first of many scare campaigns that the opposition will put to us today.

Why do they have to do that? Because this is an opposition with no housing policy, no housing plan and no credibility when it comes to addressing housing pressures across the country. When those opposite were last in government, they didn't even have a housing minister. Not once in nine years did they show the leadership needed to tackle housing affordability. Not once did they take responsibility for the growing challenge of supply. They spent their time building excuses, not homes. Now, from opposition, they want to come in here and lecture a Labor government that is actually delivering for Australians. This is the same opposition that has latched onto a so-called spare bedroom tax idea and dressed it up in a motion that is really just a scare campaign.

This spare bedroom tax idea is an idea that did not come from government and is not under consideration, yet those opposite continue to push it, misrepresenting our work and trying to scare Australians. It is a dishonest distraction. The truth is that, if the opposition had their way, we would still be stuck with the same neglect we saw for nearly a decade—a decade where housing approval slowed, planning reforms stalled and investment in social and affordable housing fell off a cliff. They left Australians with a shortage of hundreds of thousands of homes.

By contrast, this Labor government sees housing as one of the defining economic and social challenges of our generation. That's why we are investing $43 billion in new housing measures—real action that is already delivering results. More than half a million homes have been built since we came to government. Building approvals are up almost 30 per cent in the past year. Dwelling commencements are up 14 per cent. Costs are stabilising, and the construction sector is gaining momentum. Just this week, we brought forward one of our signature housing policies—five per cent deposits for first home buyers. Originally set to begin in early 2026, the scheme will now start on 1 October this year. From that date, all first home buyers will be able to buy a home with a deposit as low as five per cent, without paying tens of thousands of dollars in lender's mortgage insurance. For a young couple in the northern suburbs of Hobart, where the house prices are around $650,000, a five per cent deposit means they need just $32,500 to buy their first home. Under the old system, saving a 20 per cent deposit would have taken them years longer, and then they would have had to pay about $20,000 in mortgage insurance on top. This is about turning the dream of homeownership for Tasmanians into a reality sooner and with less financial strain.

So what have we got here today? We have an opposition that has come into this chamber with a urgency motion that really is just a scare campaign. They should be ashamed. They've come in here, they've done no work, and they've latched on to an idea that someone else has put out there that is not even under consideration by this government. (Time expired)